Serenity
by Felarof
Summary: One Shot. To get over writer's block I wrote this really brief story about a girl named Charlee Bennet who was 14 when the martians attacked. Please read and review!


Note to the Disclaimer; I do not own any of the settings, ideas or places stated in this story. They belong to H.G. Wells and his registered companies. I do however own Charlee Bennet, so no takie takie!

xxx

I remember the night they came, each green casket bursting with green fire as it fell to our earth. I remember the fire, swelling and hot, moving in every way, in every place, we could not escape. I remember who they took from us, my friends, my parents, my teachers and brothers. I remember that fateful day when the martians came down upon us as rain might take a river.

My name was Charlee Bennet and I was 14 when my father, a Science Proffessor in Astronomy called me to his telescope to watch the night sky.  
He shouted with glee as he watched that green fire burst from Mars. "A comet! A comet," he shouted, "I never thought I would live to see such luck!" Such was the joy of my father that the fierce emotions of fear were subdued as I watched that great wreathing flame fall to Earth. And as I fell into bed that night I had no idea how much that comet would change my life. Would change everyone's lives. Would change.. the world..

I awoke several nights later to screams and tears, whispers and wonders of giant Tripods, causing havoc in the sourounding area. There were fingers pointed and rumors whispered about the pillars of black smoke that crawled through the sky, entertwined with each cloud, mellowing in our fair summer air. The Mortensen's were the first to leave. Packing their bags and saddeling their horse they ran off, carrying whispers of the devil with them. And I was forced to watch as my mother grabbed my hand and led me away from worried onlookers.

I was the one who gripped my brother's hands as a scream wondered through the night. As the first Tripod gracefully slid over our pale horizon,  
silhouetted by a crisp night with a moon and stars, equiped with a calling wind, chilling our bones. I was the one who tripped as I fled, feeling the cold, hard, ground greet me as I knew it was the end. As I struggled to pick myself up I could see my family leaving me in the wake of destruction, such was the emptiness that filled me..

I remember the sound of my gasp as the water climbed up to my stomach, it was like a piece of ice that hit me. But I kept going the whirring of the Tripod's swept behind me, the other people around me coughing and screaming as we all tried our best to pull our own bodies under the searing rage that was the river. And as I pulled my head under the water silence grew around me and all I could hear was the swishing of my own arms, pulling me by instinct deeper into the river. All I could feel was my arms swishing and the way the water brushed upon them. Then suddenly, light and heat. The water grew into a fire around me and I remember the darkness that took me so quickly and serenly.

...but I was not dead...

Not yet. Not yet..

A flutter of birds and trees. Cool muck between my hands, but fire in my flesh. The water should have killed me. But by a mercy, I was saved.  
Perhaps a piece of wood drifted into my path, perhaps the heat ray was not actually fired into the river. Perhaps the man who lies next to me,  
near incarcinated by the raging waters, did what he could to save another human being. Just one other human being. Tiredness sweeps into me and the fire starts to fade. If this is death then it is not so bad. My eyes grow heavy and I can feel sleep moving hazzily towards me, like a hot day in the summer sun.

And as I lie, lie and wait, wait for whatever comes next, my fate, or fortune, and I realise the sun is up and the mechanical whirring is at an end.  
I relish the thought that those machines will be far away from my unmarked grave. I know that the battle is over, but a war, a war between man and martian had just begun..

xxx

ack! What a horrible ending! Hi folks! It's me, I'm new to the War of the Worlds Genre but I have read the book and seen the movie, so I do know my stuff. I thik this fanfic is more book based, but it runs both ways. It is perhaps my worst piece of writing, but that's okay! I just felt that I owed something to this story as the actual book is quite powerful. I needed to write it so I can get back to my real story which has like.. three chapters.. (I'm not very good at updating but a new chapter should be up soon)

uhh.. please review! It means so much to me! and no flames!

thanks! -Felarof 


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